“This is where my nightmare begins.”

“Dear PoPville,

I purchased a 3-bedroom townhouse Affordable Dwelling Unit (ADU) in NE DC as a single person in 2011. After 7 years of ownership, I made the decision to sell my townhouse and purchase a market rate home. Per the restrictive covenants attached to my ADU property, I contacted DC’s Dept. of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to request the maximum sales price be determined. This is where my nightmare begins.

First, DHCD notifies me that I must sell the home through their Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) lottery process. This is the first time I had ever heard of such a requirement and when I questioned where the requirement originated from, they pointed to a particular paragraph within the restrictive covenants… except I didn’t have those paragraphs in the covenant language package that I received at the time of my purchase. It was soon discovered that for most buyers in my ADU community, about HALF of the restrictive covenant language was missing when they purchased their homes! DHCD attempted to tell me that I still had to adhere to the covenant language I never received and stated that “I should have asked if any pages were missing before I signed” but I balked at that assertion. Because of this, I was told it was optional for me to participate in the IZ lottery process. In the meantime, DHCD sends every homeowner in the community the new set of full restrictive covenants via certified mail and asks us to sign and return an acknowledgment form. I refused to do so (they weren’t terms I agreed to originally and had I been provided all the covenants at the time of sale, I may not have purchased).

DHCD did eventually provide me with the maximum sales price and so I placed my townhouse on the market; I chose not to participate in the IZ lottery process. ADUs must be sold to another low-income buyer at a certain percentage of the AMI, so my agent and I were extremely diligent in finding the appropriate buyer. I accepted a contract on the home and, as also required, provided DHCD the potential buyer’s contact information approximately 5 weeks before the scheduled closing. The day BEFORE the closing date, DHCD tells the buyer they are not eligible to buy the home because they are a one person household and the home requires a minimum occupancy of three people. Again, I am confused because (1) In all the contracts that I signed and all the meetings that I had with DHCD to discuss the requirements to sell, including an in person meeting, a minimum occupancy requirement was never mentioned and (2) I purchased the home myself as a one person household. Again, DHCD points to a provision in the covenants that states any current IZ regulations in place must be adhered (where the minimum occupancy language is written); and again, it’s a provision that was not included in the covenants I received at the time of sale. DHCD states that there has always been a minimum occupancy requirement and that my home (and the homes of 12 other people in the community) were sold to us in error and that “I should have asked them if there was a minimum occupancy requirement” (how can I ask about something that I didn’t even know existed??). Bottom line, DHCD stopped my sale and I’m now stuck carrying the mortgage of a home I no longer live in for a few more months and trying to sell a house in the winter.

The level of incompetence at DHCD is astounding at this point. I’ve asked them numerous questions that they simply refuse to answer, including the contact information for their legal department. They’re simply digging in their heels and telling me that I have to follow covenant language that I was just only provided after 7 years of ownership (now 8; this has been going on for a while) and for which I never signed off on!

What should my next steps be? Yes, I will start the sale process all over again but now I’m fearful that DHCD will come up with some new requirement at the 11th hour that I’ve never been made aware of. Should I contact an attorney? Advocacy group?

Any direction would be much appreciated.”